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by juiceboxjellyfish



Series: Carry On Countdown 2017 [1]
Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), Gen, Watford (Simon Snow), at watford, first year, getting to Watford, sad kid simon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 16:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12821010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juiceboxjellyfish/pseuds/juiceboxjellyfish
Summary: A short story about Simon when The Mage first takes him to Watford.





	Home

Particles of dust were falling slowly through the air, highlighted by the beams of afternoon sun that were peeking in through the windows. The room was messy and clearly lived in, but the bare walls and the rows of identical beds lacked any of the comfort that a home provides. Even though toys were scattered across beds, chairs, and bedside tables, it didn’t look like a place children should live in. Because children need more than just toys and beds to feel at home. The most important part of any decent childhood is love. Simon knew this. He probably knew it better than anyone, despite living a mostly loveless life. Or maybe because he’d lived a mostly loveless life.  

He wanted to believe that his parents had loved him. He wanted to believe that they were going to come back for him one day, and that they’d take him away to live in a proper home where he’d be happy. That’s what he wanted to believe. But gets hard to believe something like that after a decade of loneliness without a single sign of anything else being on its way. It gets hard to believe that you’ll ever be anything but lonely, and it doesn’t help to sit and watch the other kids play without you. Simon probably knew that too. He just didn’t have anything better to do. He bounced his red ball on the floor, stirring up clouds of dust with every bounce. The room was silent, except for the bouncing of the ball and the muffled sound of children laughing outside the window.  

That’s what most of Simon’s summer days were like. Bleak and lonely, all spent in the bedroom doing nothing in particular. Which is why this day, which would have been unusual to anyone would be even more so to Simon. He’d never had a visitor before, but practically out of nowhere, a handsome man in an odd outfit was standing in the middle of the room telling Simon the most unbelievable things. Things about boarding schools, magic, and magical wars, but most unbelievable of all, that he wanted Simon to come with him. That apparently there was a magic school called Watford, and he wanted Simon to go there and learn about magic. Because apparently Simon was magical. A mage. None of it sounded sane, but with the flick of a green cape Simon and the man were on their way.

The castle was magnificent. All the buildings were magnificent, like nothing Simon had ever seen before. The whole area was surrounded by tall brick walls, and there was even a moat. Simon could’ve sworn he saw creatures moving around in it, but decided not to think about it. He was overjoyed to see that the school had a football pitch, and it looked like a nice one too. With the scenic surroundings and the seemingly ancient buildings, it wasn’t hard at all to believe that this was a magical place. And Simon was going to go here.

 

Despite all the struggles Simon was going to face at Watford, despite all the bullshit his magic would get him into, he would never stop loving the school. He would always be impatient to get back to the classes, to his friends, to the food and the school uniforms, to the magic. 

Other people went home over the summer, but not Simon. 

For Simon, Watford would always be home.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing the Carry On Countdown, or at least as much of it as I can manage!  
> So there will be quite a lot of new fics in the upcoming month.
> 
> Please leave a comment, I love reading them and will need the motivation to continue through the whole month. See you tomorrow!  
> (tomorrow's fic is a lot gayer than this one... so make sure you read that ;))


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